Portuguese triumph for Gorleston golf pair

12:19 15 February 2013

David James (left) and James Chadd of Gorleston Golf Club.

Archant

An epic golf journey which began with 800 pairs bidding for a prestigious national title has ended in success for Gorleston duo David James and James Chadd who shone brightest of them all in the Portuguese sun.

After battling through five rounds of area and regional competitions, Gorleston Golf Club manager James and partner Chadd emerged at the top of the pile in the HowDidiDo championship final at the Vilamoura resort. They scored a perfect five wins out of five in the all-age fourball better ball handicap contest on five courses at the Algarve venue.

James admitted that the success had not come as a complete surprise.

“We did think we had a chance of winning it. Normally I can be quite pessimistic but when we were travelling up to Manchester for the flight I said to James that I had a good feeling about the week.

“I knew no-one would bury us, to use a golfing term, in any single match but to win five out of five was more than we could have dreamt of.

“When we won it we were overjoyed. James and I just looked at each other and said ‘job done’.

James described the reaction to their success as “absolutely phoneomenal” and said he and his playing partner had been inundated with congratulatory messages. “When I got back to work on Monday to be perfectly honest I didn’t do a stroke of work until after lunch.”

He described the success as a great feather in the cap for Gorleston Golf Club adding: “The members are absolutely over the moon for us. We will dine out on this for years.”

James, aged 50, is a three handicapper while Chadd, 35, plays off of four. Their partnership was formed when Chadd’s previous playing partner James Goffin emigrated to Australia.

The duo are looking forward to defending their title but despite their success, they will have to do it the hard way – starting again from scratch in the first round in May.

This year’s quest began against Costessey with a match that was abandoned on the sixth hole at near 10pm because of bad light, which even club champion Chadd dubbed “Prince of Darkness” for his earlier epic eight-hole play-off success in a Mail on Sunday Classic round, could not overcome. Chadd and James won the replay and enjoyed success against pairs from Rookery Park (Lowestoft), Middleton Hall (and St Clements (Ipswich) before they booked their tickets to Portugal in the regional final at Chester.